Dynamic menu/create controller for menu? - codeigniter

Question

I'm building a small app in CI. I'm using a pre-made template with a separate menu file. That menu file gets included in the pageview:
<?php include('include/sidebar.php'); ?>
Now I want to make the items in the menu dynamic based on the user permissions. In my sidebar.php I define the menu items like this:
<?php
$classname = "logs";
if (check_class($classname) == true){
?>
<li id="<? echo $classname;?>" class="<?php if($this->uri->segment(1)==$classname){echo "active";}?>">
<a href="javascript:void(0);" class="menu-toggle">
<i class="material-icons">youtube_searched_for</i>
<span><?php echo $this->lang->line('menu_logs') ?></span>
</a>
<ul class="ml-menu">
<?php
$methodname = "viewlogs";
if (check_method($classname,$methodname) == true){
?>
<li id="<? echo $classname;?>" class="<?php if($this->uri->segment(1)==$classname AND $this->uri->segment(2)==$methodname){echo "active";}?>">
<?php echo $this->lang->line('menu_logs') ?>
</li>
<?php }?>
</ul>
</li>
<?php }?>
check_class and check_method are currently included in the sidebar.php file as well:
<?php
// This should not be here...
global $thisglobal;
$thisglobal = $this;
global $auth_roleglobal;
$auth_roleglobal = $auth_role;
function check_class($class) {
global $thisglobal;
//Override if admin
if ($thisglobal->auth_role == "admin") {
return true;
}
// Get current roles permissions
$role_arr_flipped = array_flip(array($thisglobal->auth_role)); // Avoid Error # Only variables should be passed by reference
$role_arr_intersected = array_intersect_key($thisglobal->config->item('user_role_permissions'), $role_arr_flipped);
$role_perms = array_shift($role_arr_intersected);
if (array_key_exists($class, $role_perms)) {
return true;
} else {
return false;
}
}
function check_method($class,$method) {
global $thisglobal;
//Override if admin
if ($thisglobal->auth_role == "admin") {
return true;
}
// Get current roles permissions
$role_arr_flipped = array_flip(array($thisglobal->auth_role)); // Avoid Error # Only variables should be passed by reference
$role_arr_intersected = array_intersect_key($thisglobal->config->item('user_role_permissions'), $role_arr_flipped);
$role_perms = array_shift($role_arr_intersected);
// Flip arrary
$role_perms["$class"] = array_flip($role_perms["$class"]);
if (array_key_exists($method, $role_perms["$class"])) {
return true;
} else {
return false;
}
}
?>
This works, but obviously including those functions into the view file is against the MVC approach, and I might want to reuse check_class and check_method in other views as well. I have moved those functions to my_controller, but again I should not call those functions from my view.
I am kinda lost in how to continue...
The sidebar does not have its own controller. Should I create a separate one? But then how do I load it because I can't (should not) call the menu controller from the page view.
Or should I call the check_class and check_method before loading the view, but I don't know yet which menu items I should check at that point.
Thanks!

Answer 1

I would create a library called Menu.php in there I would create functions that would check the user permissions and stuff, and also have a render method that will just output the menu.
This way your controller would load that library. Send some data into it and get the menu as a string. Then you just send that string to the view and echo it.
Other option would be looking into a presenter pattern and try to implement that in codeigniter.
Presenter pattern
Presenter library for ci